A lot of success stories came out of G.W. Graham middle secondary over its first 10 years.
The evidence of student achievements lines the halls of the school. Over the last decade, they’ve won top academic awards, earned countless scholarships, created works of art, and become football champions. Each accomplishment is a source of pride for staff and students, and this Saturday, they’re inviting the public to help them celebrate their 10-year anniversary.
They’re opening the doors to the community for a few hours, and hosting an informal walk through.
“This is the first time we’ve done this sort of thing,” says teacher and counsellor Kim Hancock. She’s one of about 25 staff and faculty that have been at G.W. since it opened, and just one of many teachers and students taking part in Saturday’s open house. “We’re really hoping past students and current students will come out, and maybe reconnect.”
But they’re also hoping the general public will come out and take a look around the school, knowing that so many of the students who have graduated there have gone on to find success here in Chilliwack, across the province, and even around the world. Some have even come back to G.W. Graham as teachers themselves, Hancock says.
“We see students from that first grad year that have come back to the school,” she says, laughing. “And a number of them have come back now as teachers on call. It’s really cool when I see them come in, I’m looking at them and thinking, ‘why are you in the staff room?’”
The school was opened in September of 2006, bringing together almost 700 students from Grades 7 to 10. The next year, those Grade 10s moved up to 11, and then to Grade 12 as the school increased in numbers.
It boasts three shops, two home economics rooms, three computer labs, two gymnasiums, two art rooms, and a 350-seat theatre. The school’s first principal, Diego Testa, said at the time G.W. Graham was to be a school focusing on academic success and the arts. It didn’t take long for the school to establish itself as a leader in the classroom.
Seeing that first group of grads come out of the school was one of the highlights for Hancock, in a decade of wonderful moments.
“It was very exciting,” she says of the Class of 2009.
“Those were our first grads and they were on top of the heap for three years.”
While the achievements are all wonderful, and have been numerous over the years, Hancock says it’s really the relationships that are built in high school that make those formative years memorable.
And she is sure that G.W. Graham teachers have done an excellent job in making sure students feel connected to their school. Their grads often come back and help with larger projects, or just stop in to say hello. And as much as the former math and sciences teacher would like to think it’s the solid education they remember, she knows the students hold on to those other moments.
“When they’re 22 years old, nobody ever remembers that math lesson,” she says. “They remember the really cool activity they did using physics, or the balloon fight at end of a French revolution unit.”
Other students love drama, or found that connection through an art club, a sewing club, or an anime club.
“That’s the joy of teaching, it’s making those relationships,” she says.
Saturday’s open house is nothing too formal, Hancock says. There will be students working away on projects in many of the rooms, and teachers and leadership students on hand to chat with and explain the brief but exciting history of the school.
There will be food trucks on site, but also samples from the Grade 10 foods students who will be in the kitchen. The librarian has also planned a book sale and will be selling past yearbooks in the library.
While the school is often open on evenings and weekends for community, theatre and sports events, this is the first time the school has simply welcomed the public in to look around. Hancock says there is plenty to see, especially for those who haven’t been there in a few years.
“There are various pieces of artwork around the school, including a house post at the front office honouring the fact we are on Sto:lo Nation territory,” she says. “There is a beautiful mural by a local artist, and more artwork near the theatre.”
The trophy cases are brimming full, banners in the gym celebrating student athletes, and all the academic accomplishments upstairs on plaques.
The school has been celebrating this milestone throughout the year, amongst themselves. They marked 10-year anniversaries of staff at Christmas, and had G.W. Graham’s great grandson, Graham Hendry, in attendance at a celebration.
G.W. (Wilf) Graham passed away on May 27, 2010 at 103 years of age. But he was able to attend the official opening of the school on Nov. 15, 2006. He lived a life devoted to education, and was originally a student at the old Rosedale elementary school in 1913. He graduated from Chilliwack High School in 1923, and started teaching at Atchelitz elementary school in 1925, and finished as principal of CSS in 1950. He was appointed Inspector of Schools, then Assistant Deputy Minister, and then a superintendent for Richmond School District. He eventually came back to Chilliwack, and served as an interim of Chilliwack School District in 1977.
To learn more about G.W. Graham middle secondary, tour the school, observe department demonstrations and more, be at the school at between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 14.
